A new £700m plan laid out to help young people in England catch up on lost learning due to the pandemic
Following the announcement of the roadmap which laid out a cautious easing of restrictions, the government has announced further elements of the recovery support package so children and young people can catch up on missed learning and development due to the pandemic.
The return to school on March 8 will be supported with a new £700m package, focusing on an expansion of one-to-one and small group tutoring programmes, as well as supporting the development of disadvantaged children in early years settings, and summer provision for those pupils who need it the most. A new one-off Recovery Premium for state primary and secondary schools, building on the Pupil Premium, will be provided to schools to use as they see best to support disadvantaged students.
The new recovery package for England includes:
A new one-off £302m Recovery Premium for state primary and secondary schools, building on the Pupil Premium, to further support pupils who need it most. The average primary school will receive around £6,000 extra, and the average secondary school around £22,000 extra. This will help schools to bolster summer provision for their students, for example laying on additional clubs and activities, or for evidence-based approaches for supporting the most disadvantaged pupils from September.
£200m (from the £300m announced by the prime minister in January to expand our successful tutoring programmes). This will fund an £83m expansion of the National Tutoring Programme for primary and secondary schools, which has been shown to boost catch up learning by much as three to five months at a time; a £102m extension of the 16-19 Tuition Fund for a further year to support more students in English, maths and other vocational and academic subjects; and £18 million funding to support language development in the early years, supporting a critical stage of child development.
£200m (including the final £100m from the prime minister’s announcement) will be available to secondary schools to deliver face-to-face summer schools. Schools will be able to target provision based on pupils’ needs but the government is suggesting they may want to initially target incoming year 7 pupils. This is alongside wider support funded through the Holiday Activities and Food Programme across the country.
A range of high-quality online resources will be available for all teachers and pupils, starting from the summer term and throughout summer holidays. These will be provided by Oak National Academy, to help give pupils the confidence they are ready for the next academic year.
Commenting on the education recovery package announced by the government, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We welcome this funding package and we look forward to seeing the detail in due course. It is vital that schools are able to decide on how they use the recovery premium based on their knowledge of pupils’ needs, and we are pleased to see the recognition that they will be able to spend this additional funding for evidence-based approaches. We are also pleased to see the education secretary’s acknowledgement that longer term support will be vital over the length of this parliament to ensure children make up for lost learning.
“It is frustrating that the £700m package has been salami-sliced to such an extent that it may reduce its effectiveness. Our view is that the total sum of the money should go directly to schools, colleges, and early years providers, rather than being diverted into other pots or ring-fenced. By allocating a large sum of money to the National Tutoring Programme and apparently earmarking another large sum of money specifically for summer schools, there is less available to schools and colleges to use for catch-up support in general. The best way of ensuring that catch-up work is well-resourced is surely to maximise the amount of money available to providers to spend on the approaches that work best for their pupils.”
Commenting on the announcement of a ‘recovery support package’ for children and young people in England as schools and colleges emerge from lockdown, Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Additional investment is going to be absolutely crucial if we’re going to help schools and colleges plan and arrange enough 1-2-1 support and small group work, during this academic year and the next. Learning is going to need to be adapted by staff in all sorts of ways so that young people consolidate learning which has been missed, regain their motivation and succeed in their next stage.
“The £200m funding for the National Tutoring Programme won’t be anywhere near big enough to meet the learning and social needs the government have identified, which have been created by COVID disruption.
“The NEU and the Sutton Trust have recommended to government that £750m is needed as the first immediate boost to Pupil Premium. Instead, £302m has been announced. This will not get support to all of the 1.3 million students eligible for free school meals. The number of children and families in poverty is also rising, so more students will need immediate support via schools and colleges. This challenge is too significant to be met with half measures.
“Holiday schemes at Easter and summer with a mix of learning and outdoor sports activities will be welcomed by parents and are sorely needed – but these must be planned and co-ordinated by local authorities. Best value for money will be achieved if local authorities are supported and resourced to plan the holiday provision, building on what already exists in local areas, and drawing in expertise from their local schools, youth groups and adventure playgrounds. The burden should not fall on school leaders to plan holiday learning provision.
“Giving flexibility to schools to use the Recovery Premium in ways that they judge will best support their disadvantaged learners is vital. It is a rare recognition by Government that schools know best.
“Some of the funding in today’s announced is recycled from previous commitments. What is badly needed is a broader redesign of education policy with proper investment over the next five years to address the education divide. We look forward to working with Sir Kevan Collins on a long-term strategy to respond to the inequality which blights children’s lives.
“40% of the education attainment gap is set in stone before children even start school – caused by economic disadvantage, a lack of food, of a decent place to live and chronic low pay. 46% of Black children are growing up in poverty. What COVID has exposed are the chronic levels of poverty and disadvantage that strike the lives of too many children.
“The education recovery plan will need to tackle issues of poverty, racism and social exclusion honestly. It demands substantially more funding than that announced today. We believe there is broad public support for proper investment to enable a fairer education system so that no children or young people are left behind.”
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